Legal Ruling Reveals Limits on Changing One's Name

There are plenty of excellent reasons that someone might change their legal name, including choosing one that better reflects their identity or family. Sometimes, a new name can also reflect a general outlook: We’re not that far removed from the days when World B. Free played professional basketball, after all. But certain name changes have encountered legal pushback, and a recent New York case serves as the latest example.

As Gothamist’s Giulia Heyward reports, a judge in Manhattan ruled they would not approve someone’s attempt to legally change their first name to “Dr.” Among the reasons cited by the judge was one you might expect: The person seeking to change their first name to Dr. was not, in fact, a doctor.

Gothamist reports that the court pointed out that such a name change “may reasonably lead to fraud, deception or confusion,” which seems fair.

This is not the only case in recent years when a legal body has ruled against a particularly creative name-change request. Earlier this year, the South China Morning Post reported on the Chinese government turning down a young man’s request — the latest in a series of them, apparently — to a lengthy list of characters.

One Mountain Runner’s Legal Odyssey May Be Over Soon

A record-setting run landed one runner in legal trouble

Last year, The New York Times reported on a related phenomenon: the practice of some politicians providing Chinese versions of their names for ballots in the San Francisco area. Times reporters Heather Knight and Amy Qin wrote this can sometimes lead to “flattering, flowery phrases that at first glance have little to do with their actual names,” something that led San Francisco’s local government to push back against the practice.

Again, there a lot of very good, very valid reasons someone might want to change their name. But it makes the presence of bad actors looking to do the same that much more of a challenge for local authorities, both here and abroad.

Meet your guide

Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…